. >>> for the rest of us, the fiscal cliff countdown. president obama headed back to d.c. from honolulu. and there is hope that some of this could pass before the new year. we'll see. >>> and a big star with a big heart. my first hand look at matt damon's quest to change the lives of people who live half a world away. trying to get affordable access to nearly a billion people around the world. who don't have access to clean water. welcome back to "early start," it's 27 minutes past the hour. >> let's get started with some of the news. blizzards battling the midwest, plenty more to come, unfortunately. >> oh, my god. we need to go. it's right there. >> a lot of damage reported overnight in mobile, alabama. a tower cam from cnn affiliate wala. blowing transformers, knocking out power to 20,000 customers. the other half of the extreme weather equation, a blizzard, much of the midwest getting targeted. the northeast coming our way. >>> and take a look at this. we want to show you live pictures of snow in seymour, indiana. you can see it's coming down pretty hard. you want to g